Tony Khan on His Gratitude to Kenny Omega for Bringing Konosuke Takeshita to AEW, Being More Proud of AEW WrestleDream Than Any Other AEW Show Since Pandemic, & Samoa Joe’s AEW Future

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan’s thoughts about his gratitude to Kenny Omega for bringing Konosuke Takeshita to AEW.

“With (Konosuke) Takeshita, it was Kenny Omega, who first came to me and said, ‘I really believe in Takeshita, and if you give him an opportunity here, I think you’re really gonna like him,’ and boy was Kenny right. I mean, Kenny’s a wrestling genius himself, and I was just talking with Kenny about this the other night because Kenny and I flew home together after WrestleDream — back to Florida — and we were talking on the flight back and I am very grateful to Kenny because when he brought that kid here, he was on to something. You could see it from when Takeshita first got here. He was like a big athlete. Sometimes I compare Takeshita to Barry Windham. I think when I first saw him, I saw this tall kid that glides effortlessly through the ring and just glides, and he’s so crisp with everything he does, and I couldn’t put my finger on it, but then, when I watched a few of his matches, I said, ‘Barry Windham,’ and I feel like the way he’s improved and continuously got better and better, again, it reminds me of seeing young Barry Windham coming into his own and I’m really excited because I think Takeshita’s had great mentorship, and here in AEW, we really believe in him and he’s risen to these opportunities.”

In a separate recent interview with Z100 New York, Khan gave his thoughts about AEW’s WrestleDream 2025 event and it being one of his most favorite AEW events ever and his most proud event since the COVID pandemic.

“I absolutely loved the WrestleDream show, start to finish. And I thought we had such a great night and put so much great action in the show. And I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about WrestleDream. It’s one of my favorite AEW events ever, pound-for-pound, especially with some injuries and some top stars away. I thought this was the absolute best show we were capable of putting on. So I’m more proud of what we did at WrestleDream — probably at least since the pandemic of any show we’ve done.

Like I said, some of the top wrestling stars were away and I said, ‘I’m going to make this the best possible show and everyone’s going to say WrestleDream was the greatest event AEW could put on. And it’s going to be about the people who are here, and they’re going to love this event.’ And that’s how I felt at times in the lockdown, in the pandemic. If anybody wasn’t available, we would be creative, we would come up with the very best shows we could possibly put on in a unique environment.

And that’s how I felt about WrestleDream. So we tried a lot of things at WrestleDream, and I really felt like it was very successful. I don’t think anybody had — to the best of my recollection, to the best of my knowledge — had ever had an event carry over [from pre-show into the PPV].”

Khan also gave his thoughts about his praise of Samoa Joe for being someone who is highly valuable to AEW and him mentoring others backstage.

“Hugely valuable. Samoa Joe is already one of the top mentors in AEW and anybody who steps in the ring with Samoa Joe learns a lot and anybody (who) gets the tutelage of Samoa Joe in AEW learns a lot. I think Powerhouse Hobbs is a great example of somebody who is currently learning a lot from Samoa Joe that will benefit him throughout the rest of his career. I know he’s learning, to quote Samoa Joe, life lessons. Life lessons that will be with him for the rest of his life, and I am very, very proud to have Samoa Joe in AEW and I’m very optimistic that eventually, whenever Samoa Joe does decide to retire from the ring, I’m very hopeful and optimistic that Samoa Joe will stay with us in AEW and be a mentor to the wrestlers… And my hope is that Samoa Joe will stay with us in AEW forever.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2, F4WOnline.com